Method and system for improving client server transmission over fading channel with wireless location and authentication technology via electromagnetic radiation

ABSTRACT

Wireless personal area network (Zigbee, Bluetooth, UWB) and wireless identification technologies (Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)) are implemented in particular client server functions and communications. Connected with an Authentication Server, a wireless HUB authenticates user identification and provides the user with access to secure data communication with a wireless terminal such as a cellular phone or a PDA. A Location Server provides user locations via methods such as RSSI, TDOA, and GPS and sends location information to a Center Control Server and the Authentication Server. With location information, the Center Control Server initiates and optimizes secure information processes and coordinates the functions of servers and user terminals.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of previously filed U.S. applicationSer. No. 11/540,637, filed Oct. 2, 2006, which claims the benefit under35 U.S.C. §119 of previously filed provisional patent application Ser.No. 60/722,444, entitled “Online Method and System for InternationalTourism Business” and filed on Oct. 3, 2005, and also claims the benefitunder 35 U.S.C. §119 of previously filed provisional patent applicationSer. No. 60/787,510, entitled “Intelligent Kiosk for Mobile Payment” andfiled on Mar. 31, 2006, and also claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119of previously filed provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/832,962,entitled “Method and System for Global Telecommunication Transactions”and filed on Jul. 25, 2006. The entire contents of these applicationsare hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally wireless communication security, andmore particularly to a method and system for facilitating electroniccommunication of secure information.

2. Description of the Related Art

Wireless communication and network technologies have advanced with anaccelerating rate. How to integrate, apply, improve, and manage wirelesscommunication and computer server technology advancement in industry andeconomic development always remains a challenge.

Although network communication has become prevalent in people's lives,how to enable secure data transmission in the global context withwireless terminals presents another area of need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The applications of part or all the embodiments of present inventionprovide improvement of secure data communication in industry andbusiness. The potential increased efficiency and profits generated aresustained by integrated information across industry sectors, time, andnetworks.

By improving wireless communication security technology and integratingwireless communication with remote server functionality, this inventionprovides a method and system to advance security and efficiency of datacommunication. The invented method and system have valuable applicationsin sectors of servers and computer software, logistics,telecommunications, global trade, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures depict, in highly simplified schematic form, embodimentsreflecting the principles of the invention. Many items and details thatwill be readily understood by one familiar with this field have beenomitted so as to avoid obscuring the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the architecture of anexample of a system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of Center ControlServer Modules in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a wirelesscommunication structure of a system in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIGS. 4A-B are schematic diagrams illustrating an example of anauthentication process in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an NFCcommunication system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an Account Management Server andcorresponding functionality.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are functional block diagrams illustrating processes inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an event diagram illustrating an example of information flowin accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention will now be taught using various exemplary embodiments. Itwill be appreciated that the invention is not limited to just theseembodiments. It is and will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatthese specific details are not required in order to practice the presentinvention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system architecture in accordancewith the present invention. The system includes Center Control Server200, which is connected to a wireless HUB 320, Authentication Server330, Location server 340, Account Management Server 250, and userterminal(s) 460 through a network 100, such as the Internet. Thewireless HUB 320, along with Authentication Server 330, authenticatesuser's identification through a short range Electromagnetic (EM)radiation and provides the user with access to secure data communicationwith a wireless terminal such as a cellular phone or a PDA. The CenterControl Server 200, through various functional modules, manages the dataflow and coordinates the functions of the servers and user terminals.User location information is sent from the Location Server 340 andprocessed to initiate, accelerate, and optimize the flow of informationand corresponding processes.

Various aspects described herein may be embodied as systems, methods orcomputer programs. Computer program embodiments may be stored on acomputer readable medium such as a magnetic disk, optical disk,non-volatile memory, or other tangible computer readable media. Suchcomputer programs variously include program instructions that areexecutable by a processor to perform operations comprising thosedescribed in detail herein.

One aspect of the invention implements a cellular network, a wirelesspersonal area network (WPAN) and wireless identification technology.Various technologies are applicable to this aspect of the invention,including but not limited to 3G technology for the cellular network;Zigbee, Bluetooth, or UWB technologies for the WPAN; and RFID (e.g.,NFC) for the wireless identification technology.

The present invention facilitates secure data transmission through thewireless HUB 320. The wireless HUB 320 first receives and recognizes aunique identifier corresponding to a mobile terminal through a wirelessconnection. Once this authentication is processed, the wireless HUB 320establishes a communication channel with the user terminal for securedata transmission. The data is routed via the secure communicationchannel to the Center Control Server 200 and processed by the functionmodules.

FIG. 3 illustrates and provides a system process in accordance with thisaspect of the invention. In FIG. 3, the secure communication channel isseparate from the short range wireless connection used to receive theunique identifier in order to achieve a greater bandwidth.Alternatively, the authentication and data transmission upon thecompletion of the authentication can share a wireless communicationchannel.

The wireless HUB (WHUB) 320 is located in a public or private location.For a public location, the WHUB 320 is preferably housed in a kiosk. Thekiosk may be located on a street, or in an airport, shopping mall, orany location that is perceived as convenient and likely to include usertraffic. For private locations, the WHUB 320 is preferably configuredfor usage in locations like homes or hotel rooms. In these environments,the WHUB 320 may be provided in a smaller device such as part of a SetTop Box (STB).

The handset 310 is equipped with a tag that provides a unique identifierthat can be wirelessly communicated to the WHUB 320. A preferred tag isa Near Field Communication (NFC) tag 312. NFC provides short-rangewireless connectivity via EM radiation that uses magnetic fieldinduction to enable communication between the devices. It has a shortrange of a few centimeters, which is believed to provide securityadvantages for applications of this aspect of the present invention.Although NFC is preferred, RFID or other substitutes can also beprovided. The handset 310 also includes a WPAN transceiver 314, whichallows an additional communication channel between the handset and theWHUB.

The wireless WHUB 320 is similarly equipped with an NFC reader 322, aWPAN transceiver 324 and a network adaptor 326. The NFC technologyaccommodates secure and automatic authentication and data exchangebetween the NFC tag and NFC reader.

The process of authentication may be based upon a Tag ID and password002. The Tag ID and password 006 are sent to the authentication server,which then returns a notification 012 confirming authentication.Preferably, this authentication indicates whether the individual is whohe or she claims to be, but does not address the access rights of theindividual. The authentication server may reside within or outside theWHUB 320. The authentication processes are further illustrated in FIGS.4A-B.

The communication through the separate secure communication channel(e.g., WPAN) is then established upon the completion of authentication.The WPAN functionality is used to communicate between the handset andthe WHUB, so that content related to a requested action may be securelyexchanged. In this example, the requested action is a purchase request004.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the NFC is uniquelyassociated with other information that allows an appropriate action(payment, alert, etc.) to take place. For example, when the system isbeing used to accommodate mobile payment, the RFID tag can be associatedwith the user's bank account. Further, both the WHUB 320 and wirelesshandset/terminal 310 are authorized by the Authentication Server 330.Once the devices are authenticated (i.e., the WHUB is a genuine WHUB), asecond secure communication channel with more capabilities isestablished between the handset 310 and WHUB 320. This allows the actionrequest and transaction information to be reliably transmitted betweenthe two devices. Once the user's terminal 310 is associated with theuser's bank account, the WHUB 320 can perform the functions of an ATMfor the user to manage his bank account (e.g., depositing or withdrawingmoney from the user's bank account).

A communication of the second secure wireless connection or bothwireless connections can implement a WPAN transceiver, which has ahigher data rate and longer operational range compared to NFC. Thesecure communication can be implemented by hardware (e.g., a dedicatedhardware chipset) and software (e.g., data encryption algorithm). Thesecure communication allows the exchange of transaction processinformation such as price and credit card information for a purchaserequest and bidding proposals among transaction parties. It is alsonoted that the WHUB 320 is optionally configured with a wirelesscommunication capability such as cellular network communication. TheWHUB 320 is also preferably configured to operate with a system thatdelivers Internet content.

The WHUB 320 can also exchange data with other WPAN devices 350, and theWPAN can include NFC functions for authentication purposes.

The NFC communication system used in this invention is an inductivelycoupled RFID system. Its working frequency is designed to utilize eitherlow frequency (LF) 125 kHz or high frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz, due to thefact that higher usable field strengths can be achieved in the operatingrange of the reader (e.g., 0-10 cm) in a lower frequency band than wouldbe the case in a higher frequency band.

Due to the short distance between the reader and NFC tag, this NFCsystem employ inductive coupling for data transmission. All the energyneeded for the operation of the NFC tag 322 has to be provided by theNFC reader 312 (FIG. 4C). For this purpose, the reader's antenna coilgenerates a strong, high frequency electromagnetic field, whichpenetrates the cross-section of the coil area and the area around thecoil. Because the wavelength of the frequency range used (125 kHz: 2400m, 13.56 MHz: 22.1 m) is several times greater than the distance betweenthe NFC reader's antenna and the NFC tag, the electromagnetic field maybe treated as a simple magnetic alternating field with regard to thedistance between NFC tag and antenna.

NFC uses magnetic field induction to enable communication betweendevices when they're touched together, or brought within a fewcentimeters of each other. The energy and wave transmission are based onMaxwell's equation

$\begin{matrix}\{ \begin{matrix}{\frac{\forall{\times B}}{\mu} = {j + \frac{\partial D}{\partial t}}} \\{{\forall{\times E}} = {- \frac{\partial B}{\partial t}}} \\{{\forall{\times E}} = 0}\end{matrix}  & (1)\end{matrix}$

where B is the magnetic induction, E is the electric field, D is theelectric displacement, and H is the magnetic field. The definition forcur ∀×A is

$\begin{matrix}{{\forall{\times A}} = {{( {\frac{\partial A_{Z}}{\partial y} - \frac{\partial A_{y}}{\partial Z}} )\overset{->}{x}} + {( {\frac{\partial A_{x}}{\partial z} - \frac{\partial A_{z}}{\partial x}} )\overset{->}{y}} + {( {\frac{\partial A_{y}}{\partial x} - \frac{\partial A_{x}}{\partial y}} )\overset{->}{z}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

A plane electric wave travel in the horizontal (“x”) direction space isrepresented as number

$\frac{\partial^{2}E}{\partial x^{2}} = {\frac{1}{c^{2}}\frac{\partial^{2}E}{\partial t^{2}}}$

where c is the speed of light. The same form can be applied to magneticfield wave in a place perpendicular the electrical field. Both E&B fieldare perpendicular to the travel direction x:

E=E _(m) sin(kx−ωt)

B=B _(m) sin(kx−ωt)  (3)

The WHUB 320 communicates with Location Server 340 for the mobileterminal 310 location. The Location Server 340 may detect the mobileterminal 310 location using various techniques such as Time Differenceof Arrival (TDOA), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), GPS/AGPS,and cellular tower. The location information is used to promotemerchandise trading and accelerate and optimize the transaction process.The user location information can be further used for security purposes.For example, a user detected at location A may be declined to a requestfor a cash advance or withdrawal that is made from a WHUB 320 that isactually at a different location B.

Received signal strength indication (RSSI) based location mechanism istypically used in the environment where the density of fixed referencesignal sources (such as cell tower, access points) is high. Thetransmitting power of a reference signal source is denoted as P_(t), andthe distance between the reference signal source and the mobile deviceis d. The RSSI can be calculated as follows:

P _(r) =P _(t)−20 log₁₀(4πf/c)−20 log₁₀ d  (4)

where f is the RF frequency.

The RSSI based location mechanism constitutes two steps: 1) site surveyto generate radio map and 2) table looking based location estimation. Instep 1, a radio map is generated via either manual site survey or someautomotive software algorithm. The radio contains list of positions withcorrelated RSSI values. After a radio map is generated, the location ofa mobile device is estimated by comparing the instant RSSI fromdifferent reference signal sources with the radio map. The location inthe radio map with the RSSI data that match the current RSSI data willbe considered as the mobile terminal's location.

Another position tracking method that may be used to provide thelocation information to the Location Server 340 would typically involvea mobile user who is operating on an OFDM wireless communication system.The OFDM system is one of the modulation schemes for next generationwireless communication systems. An OFDM system with N sub-carriersemploys M-ary digital modulation, a block of log, M input bits is mappedinto a symbol constellation point d_(k) by a data encoder, and then Nsymbols are transferred by the serial-to-parallel converter (S/P). If Tdenotes the symbol interval, the symbol interval in the OFDM system isincreased to NT, which makes the system more robust against the channeldelay spread. Each sub-channel, however, transmits at a lower bit rateof

$\frac{\log_{2}M}{NT}\; {bits}\text{/}{s.}$

The parallel symbols (d₀d₁, . . . d_(k) . . . d_(N-1)) modulate a groupof orthogonal sub-carriers, which satisfy

$\begin{matrix}{{\frac{1}{NT}{\int_{0}^{NT}{{{\exp ( {j\; 2\; \pi \; f_{i}t} )} \cdot {\exp ( {j\; 2\; \pi \; f_{j}t} )}}\ {t}}}} = \{ \begin{matrix}1 & {i = j} \\0 & {i \neq j}\end{matrix} } & (5)\end{matrix}$

where

${f_{i} = \frac{i}{NT}},( {{i = 0},{1\mspace{14mu} \ldots}\mspace{14mu},{N - 1}} )$

The baseband transmitted signal can be represented as

$\begin{matrix}{{s(t)} = {{\frac{1}{\sqrt{NT}}{\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{N - 1}\; {s_{k}^{j\; 2\; \pi \; f_{k}t}\mspace{14mu} ( {0 \leq t \leq {NT}} )\mspace{14mu} f_{k}}}} = \frac{k}{NT}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

The average energy for the complex baseband symbol s_(k) is denoted by2E_(s). Then s_(k) is given by:

$\begin{matrix}{s_{k} = {\sqrt{2\; E_{s}} \cdot d_{k}}} & (7)\end{matrix}$

where d_(k)=d_(k,r)+jd_(k,i), is the signal constellation point (e.g.BPSK, QPSK, QAM, etc.) with normalized variance E[|d_(k)|²]=1 The realand imaginary parts d_(k,r) and d_(k,t) are statistically independent,identically distributed and E[d_(k,r)]=E[d_(k,i)]=0.

A command frequency selective randomly varying channel with impulseresponse h(t,τ) is considered. Within the narrower bandwidth of eachsub-carrier, compared with the coherence bandwidth of the channel, thesub-channel is modeled as a frequency nonselective Rayleigh fadingchannel. Hence, the channel impulse response h_(k)(t,τ) for the k^(th)subchannel is denoted as

h _(k)(t,τ)=β_(k)(t)·δ(τ)  (8)

where β_(k)(t) is a stationary, zero mean complex-valued processdescribed as follows. It is assumed that the processes β_(k)(t), k=1, .. . , N, are complex-valued jointly stationary and jointly Gaussian withzero mean and covariance function

R _(β) _(k) _(,β) _(l) (τ)=E[β _(k)(t+τ)β*_(l)(t)], k,l=0, . . . ,N−1.  (9)

For each fixed k, the real and imaginary parts of the process β_(k)(t)are assumed independent with identical covariance function. Furtherassumed is the factorable form

R _(β) _(k) _(,β) _(l) (τ)=R_(l)(r)R ₂(k−1),  (10)

with R_(l)(τ) and R₂(k−1) specified below. R_(l)(τ) gives the temporalcorrelation for the process β_(k)(t) which is seen to be identical forall k=0, . . . , N−1. R₂(k−1) represents the correlation in frequencyacross subcarriers. In this circumstance it is assumed that thecorresponding spectral density Ψ₁(f) to R_(l)(τ) is given by the Dopplerpower spectrum, modeled as Jakes model, i.e.,

$\begin{matrix}{{D(f)} = \{ \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{\pi \; {F_{d} \cdot \sqrt{1 - ( \frac{f}{F_{d}} )^{2}}}} & {{f} \leq F_{d}} \\0 & {otherwise}\end{matrix} } & (11)\end{matrix}$

where F_(d) is the (maximum) Doppler bandwidth. Note that

R _(l)(τ)=J ₀(2πF _(D)τ)  (12)

where J₀(τ) is the zero-order Bessel function of the first kind. Inorder to specify the correlation in frequency across subcarriers, anexponential multipath power intensity of the form

S(τ)=αe^(−αr) τ>0, α>0  (13)

is adopted, where α is a parameter that controls the coherence bandwidthof the channel. The Fourier transform of S(τ) yields

$\begin{matrix}{{\psi_{2}(f)} = \frac{\alpha}{\alpha + {j\; 2\; \pi \; f}}} & (14)\end{matrix}$

which provides a measure of the correlation of the fading across thesubcarriers. Then

R ₂(k−l)=ψ₂(Δf(k,l))  (15)

where Δf=1/NT is the frequency separation between two adjacentsubcarriers. The 3 dB bandwidth of Ψ₂(f) is defined as the coherencebandwidth of the channel and easily shown to be f_(coherence)=√{squareroot over (3)}α/2π. This model is applicable to many practical wirelessOFDM systems and physical channel scenario.

The given value of the first arrived path t₀ and noise vector n are bothzero mean random variable with probability density function represent as

$\begin{matrix}{{p( {st_{0}} )} = {\frac{1}{{{Det}( Z_{s} )}\pi^{N}}{\exp ( {{- s^{*}}Z_{s}^{- 1}s} )}}} & (16)\end{matrix}$

The value t₀ is obtained by applying ML when equation (16) is maximized.Therefore, the location of the mobile user is estimated based upon thevalue of t₀.

According to one aspect of the invention, the financial transaction mayor may not immediately follow authentication. The cellular phone may beconfigured to include browsing capability, which allows the cellularphone to be used to communicate with merchants prior to making apurchase request. Internet content can also be accessed by the cellularphone in association with a transaction request.

Also, the cellular phone may access Internet content through methodsother than through the WHUB.

Various purchase types may be made with the purchase request. Examplesmay include a physical item that is separately shipped to an address, adownload that is made available immediately, possibly to the cellularphone, a service, etc.

It is also noted that a purchase request is just one form of an actionthat may be carried out. Other business or financial transactioninformation processed by the system include but are not limited to billpayment, populating an account with funds, online shopping transactions,dynamic and reverse bidding, and others.

As necessary, additional information may also be required in associationwith a requested action. For example, account identification informationor passwords to access an account for the transaction parties hosted bythe system or an external server may be required. In thesecircumstances, the Account Management Server 250 sends a request to theWHUB for the information. The WHUB may store such information andrespond to such a request. Alternatively, the WHUB may further exchangeinformation with the user (through the handset), in order to obtain theadditional information requested.

In connection with the purchase request 004, a payment request 014 ismade between the WHUB 320 and Account Management Server 250 through thenetwork connection. The payment request 014 allows the user to completethe transaction related to the purchase request 004. To accommodate asatisfactory completion of the payment request, the Account ManagementServer 250 corresponds with a payment gateway, and sends a solution 018indicating the success or failure of the payment request.

Upon an indication of a successful payment request, the WHUB 320receives a receipt 022 or confirmation number from the AccountManagement Server relating to the requested action, and passes 024 thatand related information to the handset confirming completion of theaction. This may be a receipt, confirmation numbers, coupon codes, orthe like.

According to another aspect of the invention, Account Management Server(AMS) 250 opens and manages accounts for users. The system users arecategorized into two transaction parties: the Item Request Party (IRP)and Item Supply Party (ISP). The ISP's income is remitted instantly orperiodically to the ISP's bank account from ISP's account with AccountManagement Server 250. This solution has unique advantage forcross-border financial transactions, particularly, for those countriesthat don't have compatible credit card payment infrastructure acrossborders.

FIG. 5 illustrates certain functionality of the Account ManagementServer corresponding to an example of a payment solution for atransaction processed according to one aspect of the present invention.In this example, the IRP 410 is a US tourist who has purchased tourismservice package in China from a Chinese travel agency (the ISP 450). Thecredit payment of the IRP 410 is transmitted 413 to the systemprovider's bank account in the US 253. The Account Management Server 250adds the credit to the ISP's account with Account Management Server. Thepayment to the ISP's bank account in China is transmitted from thesystem provider's bank account in China 257, e.g. with the Bank ofChina, as soon as the IRP in the US confirms the purchase. Hence, thecharge related to cross border money transmission is avoided for everysingle international trade and business processed by the system. Theaccumulated payment in the system provider's bank account at one countrycan be transmitted to the account at another country periodically. Orthe payment from IRPs at country A to ISPs at country B cancels out thepayment from IRPs, at country B to ISPs at country A so cross countrymoney transmission can be avoided. Further, the system provider maychoose the same international bank for its accounts at differentcountries to reduce the cross border financial transmission fee. Thisaspect of the present invention not only allows sellers of internationalbusiness to receive payments promptly, it also benefits the onlinebuyers and sellers with lower transmission fee for international tradeand business. In addition, it provides an improved payment solution tothe countries without sound credit card operations.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the Center control Server 200configured to provide an information platform for the informationprocess. In this embodiment, the system provides registered users withuser terminals 460, 310 and 420. IRP request information is from CenterControl Server to ISPs' terminals according to ISPs' particular needs.Users can access their terminals from a server, a wireless terminal, andthe like. Account Management Server 250 manages the payment of thetransaction based on the mechanism described in FIG. 5. IntelligentRecommendation Module 230 provides the users with information related tothe transaction such as market competition information and transactionparties' credit and location information. Dynamic Reverse Auction Module210 and Dynamic Group Transaction Module 220 manage the transactioninformation process.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an example of information flow among the ItemRequest Party (IRP) 410, center control server (CCS) 200, LocationServer (340), and Item Supply Party (ISP) 450. In the invented system,ISPs bid instead of IRPs. In addition, the IRP leads the bidding processby submitting (step 426) and modifying (step 436) requests andrequirements of items or services. The ISPs, at their customizedterminals, access IRP's requests (step 428), submit transactionproposal/offers (step 432), and monitor the competitors' proposals andmodification of requests in real real time (step 438). The requests andrequirements may alter during the process according to the real-timecompetition information (step 436). During the real time progress of theinformation process, the Center Control Server (CCS), via IntelligentRecommendation Module (IRM) 230, provides IRPs and ISPs with marketcompetition information pertaining to IRP's requests and ISP's proposalsincluding but not limited to prices from market competitors, quality,accessories of the requested items or services, credit rating andlocations of transaction parties, analysis and recommendations, andongoing bidding activities and group buy/sale negations related with therequests and proposals.

According to another aspect, this present invention facilitatesnegotiation and competition among transaction parties using user'slocation information. Center Control Server obtains the locationinformation from Location Server. With the location information of IRP,certain request and requirement are sent only to ISP close to the IRP.Further, the location information of IRP is used to initiate “group buy”request (step 462 in FIG. 7) by IRP within a same geographical location.According to this embodiment, individual IRP with similar demand mayorganize into groups and negotiate with ISPs collectively. Further, ISPcan use the IRP's location information to organize “group sale” byoutputting discount group sale information only to the IRP located in asame geographical area via Center Control Server. One application ofthis invention is in retail industry: retail buyers pay discount priceavailable only for bulk purchase and manufacturers benefit fromincreased sale, reduced cost and improved operation efficiency.

In the process of transaction information, the formation of group isintegrated into the process of ISP's bidding and IRP's requestmodification. In step 472 in FIG. 7, the variables of group purchaserequest modified include group formation requirement and informationsuch as the time left before the deal is closed, size of the group,price, quantity, quality, services, and accessories of the itemrequested, etc. These variables alter simultaneously and continuouslyand affect the change of each other. The related market competitioninformation and recommendations are sent to the IRPs and ISPs fromCenter control Server. And the two transaction parties monitor thestatus of information variables of the competition real time.

This embodiment of the invention significantly improves the staticreverse bidding process in applications. The dynamic feature of thenegotiation process enables ISPs and IRPs to locate each other mostefficiently and effectively eliminating traditional distributionchannels and layers of middlemen and bypassing obstacles presented bytime and space.

A good application of this aspect of invention is in E-commerce. Withthe invented process, the buyers buy the most optimum products with thebest price based on real time competition among sellers in the globalcontext. Since the buyers themselves define requests and productrequirements, sellers are able to target the clientele effectively. Inaddition, the sellers' benefits are beyond being informed of marketdemand real time—they are able to update the customers of the latestproduct information through their terminals.

The location information of the users provided by Location Server can beused to start a “group buy” bidding by IRPs in a same geographical area,e.g. skiers at a ski resort. Furthermore, an IRP can initiate a dynamicreverse auction among ISPs from a designated geographical area. Inaddition, ISP can select IRPs according to IRPs locations to promote“group sale” products or services. Critically, according to users'location information, the location of the nearby wireless HUBs alongwith the information of ongoing bidding, negotiation, and grouptransaction promotion processed by the system are sent to user'sterminals. Last but not least, the user's location information is usedto authenticate a user and/or restrict his activities in a geographicalarea such as withdrawing money from some wireless HUBs.

Besides location information, the request and transaction proposals canbe sent to ISPs according to other criteria. Exclusive ISP receivesinformation that is blocked to his competitors. Further, ISPs can becategorized into classes for receiving market demand and competitioninformation of varied level of quality and/or at different timeinterval.

Another embodiment of the invention provides transaction parties totrade by exchanging their products and services without monetarytransactions. This embodiment of invention also provides credits or asystem currency for circulation among the users.

In another embodiment of the invention, a user's participation of thetransactions or programs processed at the system is motivated throughsystem credit or other kind of reward. The system credit is used amongsystem users for trading goods, services. The credit is calculated witha rate, which increases with acceleration based on the participation ofthe user or the credit accumulated through participation. The rate canalso be determined together with other variables such as user'sparticipation of an ongoing promotion or the number of system usersreferred.

One embodiment of the invention is that an immediate acceptance pricefor IRP's request is indicated and/or a corresponding deposit is made inan escrow account managed by the Account Management Server. As soon asan ISP propose a transaction that meets the immediate acceptance price,the transaction is confirmed and the deposit is transferred to an ISP'saccount.

The above applications of the disclosed method and system are merelyexample of the invention, provided for the sake of completeness and forthe education of the reader by way of concrete examples. The inventioncan be embodied in various forms and applied in different industrysectors. Combinations and sub-combinations of the various embodimentsdescribed above will occur to those familiar with this field, withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, thefollowing claims should not be limited to the description of theembodiments or otherwise constrained in any way to the details ofimplementation.

1. A method for facilitating electronic communication of secureinformation, the method comprising: receiving a unique identifiercorresponding to a client process; recognizing the unique identifier andestablishing a secure communication channel with the client processbased on the recognition of the unique identifier; receiving informationfrom the client process, through the secure communication channel,wherein the information is related to an item transaction or a financialtransaction; and providing information pertaining to the transaction,wherein receiving the unique identifier is through a short rangeelectromagnetic (EM) radiation communication channel, and the shortrange electromagnetic radiation communication channel is separate fromthe secure communication channel established upon recognizing the uniqueidentifier.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the short rangeelectromagnetic radiation communication channel is NFC and the uniqueidentifier is an RFID Tag.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the securecommunications channel is one of a Bluetooth, a UWB, a WWAN, a cellularnetwork, a wired network, and a WLAN communication.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the receiving and recognizing of the unique identifieris performed by a wireless hub, and wherein the wireless hub provides auser application for exchanging additional information with the userupon the recognition of the unique identifier of the user.
 5. The methodof claim 4, wherein the wireless hub is housed within one of a kiosk anda set top box.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique identifieris associated with a financial account information and the financialtransaction includes one or more of the following: money withdrawn fromthe financial account; money deposited into the financial account; andmoney transferred to or from the financial account.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the information related to the financial transactionindicates a payment for fulfilling the item transaction, wherein makingthe payment comprises: transferring a value, for the payment of thetransaction item, from an account of a first transaction partyrequesting the item, to a first account of a system provider;transferring the value from a second account of the system provider, toan account of a second transaction party supplying the item; wherein thefirst and second transaction parties are involved with fulfilling theitem transaction; and wherein the first and second accounts of thesystem provider are in different nation states.
 8. The method of inclaim 7, wherein: the transferring of the value from the second accountof the system provider to the account of the item supply party is madeeither upon a request from the item supply party or is madeperiodically, and the value is the accumulated payments of more than oneitem transactions.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein informationpertaining to the transaction includes one or more of the following: a.a rate for calculating the user's reward such as a system creditcirculating among the transaction parties for trading goods or services,wherein the rate increases with acceleration based on the accumulationor frequency of a user's participation in the transactions processed bythe system; b. a group formation message suggesting a group formationevent for one or more item transaction and suggesting a group size; c. agroup inclusion request message pertaining to the group formation event;d. requirements about the group formation such as a time limit of thegroup formation or the quantity of the items requested by joining party;e. a transaction message indicating one or more items requested; f. atransaction message indicating a suggested supply transaction related tothe item requested; g. status or modification of one or more of thetransaction message and group formation information; and h. acceptanceof the suggested supply transaction or confirmation of the transaction.10. The method of claim 9, wherein the group size alters based on theinformation pertaining to the item transaction, including one of a realtime status of the group and the suggested supply transaction.
 11. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the client process is an implement terminalof a transaction party, wherein the terminal is one or more of: acomputer; a server/computer system; a wireless device; a PDA; and acellular telephony device.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprisingproviding one of real-time communication among transaction parties andonline status of the transaction parties, wherein the real-timecommunication includes a user application for generating modification onthe transaction information.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein theinformation pertaining to the transactions is conveyed by an alertmessage to the client process.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein theitem transaction is associated with one or more item request parties anditem supply parties, wherein one item supply party is an exclusive itemsupply party, and the supply transaction information from the exclusiveitem supply party is not provided to the others of the item supplyparties.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the information pertainingto the transaction is selected and only provided to one or more selecteditem supply parties meeting a criterion at the same time or at differenttime.
 16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving animmediate transaction indication with respect to the one or more itemsrequested, wherein: the immediate transaction indicates a thresholdacceptance value; and when one of the suggested supply transaction meetsthe threshold acceptance value, the suggested supply transaction isimmediately accepted at the threshold acceptance value.
 17. The methodof claim 16, wherein: the immediate transaction indication is providedtogether with an immediate acceptance value; and the acceptance of thesuggested supply transaction is followed by the transfer of theimmediate acceptance value to the corresponding item supply party. 18.The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving information of anitem transaction method, wherein the item transaction method applies oneor more of the following: specific credit circulated among thetransaction parties of the system; a currency; and an exchange of goodsor services between any two or more transaction parties.
 19. The methodof claim 1, further comprising providing an intelligent recommendationmodule, the module being adapted to provide item transaction relatedinformation including one or more of the following: location informationof a user; credibility rating of a transaction party; productinformation and analysis including one or more of historical price,features, quality, accessories; market and competition information andanalysis including one or more of current price competition; andinformation relating to communication among transaction parties such asonline status.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein the item transactionis associated with the item request group comprising a plurality ofindividuals requesting one or more item.
 21. A system for facilitatingelectronic communication of secure information, the system comprising:means for receiving a unique identifier corresponding to a clientprocess; means for recognizing the unique identifier and establishing asecure communication channel with the client process based on therecognition of the unique identifier; means for receiving informationfrom the client process, through the secure communication channel,wherein the information is related to an item transaction or anfinancial transaction; and means for providing information pertaining tothe transaction, wherein receiving the unique identifier is through ashort range electromagnetic (EM) radiation communication channel, andthe short range electromagnetic radiation communication channel isseparate from the secure communication channel established uponrecognizing the unique identifier.
 22. The system of claim 21, furthercomprising means for receiving location information, wherein thelocation information is used for security management or for initiationof the transaction.
 23. The system of claim 21, wherein the short rangecommunication channel is NFC and the unique identifier is an RFID Tag.24. The system of claim 21, wherein the secure communications channel isone of a Bluetooth, a UWB, a WWAN, cellular or wired network, and a WLANcommunication.
 25. The system of claim 21, wherein the receiving andrecognizing of the unique identifier is performed by a wireless hub,wherein the wireless hub provides a user application for exchangingadditional information with the user upon the recognition of the uniqueidentifier of the user.
 26. The system of claim 21, wherein the uniqueidentifier is associated with a financial account information and thefinancial transaction includes one or more of the following: moneywithdrawn from the financial account; money deposited into the financialaccount; money transferred to or from the financial account.
 27. Thesystem of claim 21, wherein the information related to the financialtransaction indicates a payment for fulfilling the item transaction,wherein making the payment comprises: transferring a value, for thepayment of the transaction item, from an account of a first transactionparty requesting the item, i.e. item request party, to a first accountof a system provider; transferring the value from a second account ofthe system provider, to an account of a second transaction partysupplying the item; wherein the first and second transaction parties areinvolved with fulfilling the item transaction; and wherein the first andsecond accounts of the system provider are in different nation states.28. The system of claim 27, wherein the transferring the value from thesecond account of the system provider to the account of the item supplyparty is made either upon a request from the item supply party or ismade periodically, wherein the value is the accumulated payments of morethan one item transactions.
 29. The system of claim 21, whereininformation pertaining to the transaction includes one or more of thefollowing: a. a rate for calculating the user's reward such as a systemcredit circulating among the transaction parties for trading goods orservices, wherein the rate increases with acceleration based on theaccumulation or frequency of a user's participation in the transactionsprocessed by the system; b. a group formation message suggesting a groupformation event for one or more item transaction and suggesting a groupsize; c. a group inclusion request message pertaining to the groupformation event; d. requirements about the group formation such as atime limit of the group formation or the quantity of the items requestedby joining party; e. a transaction message indicating one or more itemsrequested; f. a transaction message indicating a suggested supplytransaction related to the item requested; g. status or modification ofone or more of the transaction message and group formation information;h. acceptance of the suggested supply transaction or confirmation of thetransaction.
 30. The system of claim 21, wherein the client process isan implement terminal of a transaction party, wherein the terminal isone or more of: a computer; a server/computer system; a wireless device;a PDA; and a cellular telephony device.
 31. The system of claim 21,further comprising providing real-time communication among transactionparties and/or online status of the transaction parties, wherein thereal-time communication includes a user application for generatingmodification on the transaction information.
 32. The system of claim 21,further comprising means for providing an intelligent recommendationmodule, the module being adapted to provide item transaction relatedinformation including one or more of the following: location informationof a user; credibility rating of a transaction party; productinformation and analysis including one or more of historical price,features, quality, accessories; market and competition information andanalysis; and information relating to communication among transactionparties.
 33. The system of claim 21, wherein the item transaction isassociated with the item request group comprising a plurality ofindividuals requesting one or more item.
 34. A computer program forfacilitating electronic communication of secure information, thecomputer program stored on a computer readable medium and includinginstructions which are executable to perform operations comprising:receiving a unique identifier corresponding to a client process;recognizing the unique identifier and establishing a securecommunication channel with the client process based on the recognitionof the unique identifier; receiving information from the client process,through the secure communication channel, wherein the information isrelated to an item transaction or a financial transaction; and providinginformation pertaining to the transaction, wherein receiving the uniqueidentifier is through a short range electromagnetic (EM) radiationcommunication channel, and the short range electromagnetic radiationcommunication channel is separate from the secure communication channelestablished upon recognizing the unique identifier.
 35. A terminaldevice, comprising: a communication module, a user interface module, astorage module, and a control module; wherein the control moduleprovides control functions for the communication module, the userinterface, and the storage module; wherein the storage module stores aclient application; and wherein the control module executes the clientapplication to perform operations comprising: receiving a uniqueidentifier corresponding to a client process of the client application;recognizing the unique identifier and establishing a securecommunication channel with the client process based on the recognitionof the unique identifier; receiving information from the client process,through the secure communication channel, wherein the information isrelated to an item transaction or a financial transaction; and providinginformation pertaining to the transaction, wherein receiving the uniqueidentifier is through a short range electromagnetic (EM) radiationcommunication channel, and the short range electromagnetic radiationcommunication channel is separate from the secure communication channelestablished upon recognizing the unique identifier.
 36. A method forfacilitating electronic communication of secure information, the methodcomprising: receiving a unique identifier corresponding to a clientprocess; recognizing the unique identifier and establishing a securecommunication channel with the client process based on the recognitionof the unique identifier; receiving information from the client process,through the secure communication channel, wherein the information isrelated to an item transaction or a financial transaction; receivinglocation information of the client process; using the locationinformation to authenticate the identity of the client process; andproviding information pertaining to the transaction, wherein receivingthe unique identifier is through a short range electromagnetic (EM)radiation communication channel.
 37. The method of claim 36, wherein thelocation information is used at least for security management or forinitiation of the transaction.
 38. The method of claim 36, wherein thelocation information is provided by one or more of GPS/AGPS, TimeDifference of Arrival (TDOA), Received Signal Strength Indication(RSSI), information sent from a client process, or cellular tower.
 39. Asystem for facilitating electronic communication of secure information,the system comprising: means for receiving a unique identifiercorresponding to a client process; means for recognizing the uniqueidentifier and establishing a secure communication channel with theclient process based on the recognition of the unique identifier; meansfor receiving information from the client process, through the securecommunication channel, wherein the information is related to an itemtransaction or a financial transaction; means for receiving locationinformation of the client process; means for using the locationinformation to authenticate the identity of the client process; andmeans for providing information pertaining to the transaction, whereinreceiving the unique identifier is through a short range electromagnetic(EM) radiation communication channel.
 40. The system of claim 39,wherein the location information is used at least for securitymanagement or for initiation of the transaction.
 41. The system of claim39, wherein the location information is provided by one or more ofGPS/AGPS, Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), Received Signal StrengthIndication (RSSI), information sent from a client process, or cellulartower.